Citizen Power Alive and Well in El Paso: Unfortunately, the three amigos not riding off into the sunset, yet

As hard as it is to believe for the powers-that-be in El Paso, the fact is that the citizens of the community have a voice and know exactly what it is that they want. As much as Susie Byrd, John Cook and Steve Ortega try to conceal the truth, the reality is that the electorate of the city knows exactly what they want and are willingly to demand it, no matter what it takes.

Yesterday, Municipal Clerk Richarda Momsen declared that the signatures submitted for a recall election of three members of council are valid. Momsen rightfully stopped validating the signature at the point where the required number, plus a comfortable cushion, had been validated in order to expedite the process. Therefore, it can be assumed that the actual number demanding the recall of the three politicians, who think they can ignore the electorate, is much higher than the 7,000 signatures verified.

There is no hiding the truth; over 7,000 registered voters demanded that the three politicians, who assumed that they could obfuscate the will of the voter through voter apathy, need to explain themselves before the electorate in order to keep their office.

It cannot be any clearer than that!

Unfortunately, the three compadres aren’t about to listen to the constituency, after all, they feel that they know better and will now attempt to stop the recall process through legal challenges to it. That’s right, unfortunately, the three-amigos aren’t about to start listening to the electorate because they know that when it comes down to it, the truth is that the electorate has been clear from the beginning about the whole episode; it is they who determines the road the city takes and not the three amigos.

Although the certification of the recall signatures is clear as daylight, unfortunately, the shenanigans from the three-amigos will continue.

Led by self-anointed ruler of El Paso, John Cook, the recall process and the electorate’s control of the city will have to wait for more legal maneuvering intending to slow it down long enough to allow them the ability to survive their terms in office. After all, they know full well that in an election, the message will be clear to them as they are shown the door back into the obscurity of nothingness for them.

The unmentioned factor in this whole episode is that the process has been thwarted from the very beginning through legal maneuvering designed to silence the electorate. The question is who is the legal mind strategizing the legal maneuvering and why? Is there a financial benefit to the protagonist by thwarting the electorate’s will?